Stopped by on a drive from SF to Yosemite. I haven't had Olive Garden in years and wanted to give it a try. The soups were all great, and I liked that you could try out different ones. The salad is nasty. I got the chicken scampi pasta - it was not good and had pretty minimal flavors. My friends got the spicy meatball and rigatoni pasta, which was much better. Breadsticks were also great as always. I'm pretty sure it was our server's first day because she seemed very overwhelmed, but she did a good job overall. read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

Since the year 2000 I am always disappointed. It doesn't matter which Olive Garden I go to; I'm always let down. Back in the 1990's we had 2 affordable choices in the area I lived in. We had Marie Callendar's and Olive Garden. In the 90's the food was good. I always opted for Marie Challedar's for the vast variety. As the food declined at Olive Garden, I would go with friend and have ONLY the soup, salad, and breadstick. Then The Soup Plantation showed up, and I would opt to go there. The last time I voluntarily went to Olive Garden was 15 years ago. About 10 years ago, my cousin wanted to meet up with us and Olive Garden was closest to his job, and we all met there. Again, I only had soup, salad, and breadsticks. I never had plans to return. I don't care about the good-looking food on the commercials or promotions. The food sucks. I'm going to try and make a long story short... yesterday, I wasn't feeling well at all. My husband has some workers near-by the Olive Garden, and he asked me what I wanted, he was going to pick it up. We both ordered a pasta dish, a soup, and breadsticks. I ordered Shrimp Scampi, Zuppa Toscano, and of course the breadsticks. Simple... right? The first thing I did was look at the bill it was almost $75.00!!!!! Knowing my husband, he over tipped. I first noticed that my serving was only half of what it should have been. I wasn't feeling good and didn't have much of an appetite anyways. I don't know where to start, but the pasta was almost SAUCELESS and STUCK together. What little sauce was there was BLAND. The shrimp weren't cook toughly, the asparagus was over cooked, and they gave me mostly the woody-splintery ends. The tomato chunks were mush, and I just couldn't eat it. So, I moved to the Zuppa Toscano soup. The broth was white colored, flavorless water, big slices of potato, and the roughest kale pieces ever. Yall should have just left it out or raw. Who???? Can jack-up a breadstick??? The breadsticks were BLONDE, FLAVORLESS, DRY, BRICKS. My husband ordered the seafood pasta. What a joke. It had small marble sized scallops and a few shrimps; but the kicker was the MUSHY OVERCOOKED broccoli. He couldn't eat it either and he abandoned the whole eating activity. He didn't even open the soup. I just threw everything into the trash; there was no saving that meal. This question is for general management Marci Anaya. Do you monitor what's happening in the kitchen? Do you see the food before it's packaged and sent out to the consumer? Do you care if we actually get our money's worth? Do you really understand how much pasta, shrimp, veggies, and soup with breadsticks I could have actually bought with $75.00??? I could have invited over 10 people and fed each one until they were full. This is a disgrace. I WILL NOT EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER return. I don't care who's inviting me, my answer is NO! If anything, I would like my money back! read more

We don't have a ton of options here in Merced. Unfortunately this is one of our fancy restaurants. We've been here a handful of times since it opened. The service is usually good as well as the food. They make a nice salad for the table. People seem to love the bread sticks, not my jam. My wife really enjoys the gnocchi soup, I suggest you stay away from the chicken marsala. The cheese that's between the chicken breast was sour tasting and burnt. One of the desserts we like is called Warm Italian Doughnuts, they are basically beignets. Those are pretty good. The ambiance is nice. They have booths and tables. For better Italian food in Merced, go to Bella Luna. read more

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Very nice waitress, but it should not take 40 minutes for pasta to come out when the restaurant is half full. I do not recommend if you don't have an hour to wait for spaghetti. read more

I will never get tired of the soup here. I get the unlimited option and just ask for them to bring them out in a rotation. Is it authentic? No. Is it familiar and comforting? Yes. The staff here is great and if you are nice they make sure you are never out of breadsticks. read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Endless Never Ending Soup, Salad & Breadsticks - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

Super dissatisfied and disappointed in their take out. They obviously do not give careful attention to take out food orders. Such a shame. My carbonara was obviously thrown on the plate, had sauce poured over it with the chicken on it and microwaved. They didn't even bother to toss the ravioli in together as the bottom of the raviolis were stuck together and dry in between. The sauce was separated, the chicken frittata had absorbed a lot of oil and was a sopping mess. A pool of oil had already gathered (obviously oil and not butter because it never solidified) and the chocolate was too. To think people pay their hard earned money. I'm upset. This one I'm going to request my money back. read more

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Came in last night to celebrate graduation, getting our table was fine. But we were waiting 45 minutes just to get our order taken, took about 30 minutes for drinks, and an additional 25 minutes for the salad and breadsticks. There were people getting seated after us and had food way before us. Super disappointed even though they gave us free dessert and dinner but service was not good at all. read more

The food was really good, I had the tour of Italy and the chicken soup. The garlic bread sticks were the best I ever had from Olive Garden. The server was good and attentive, good place for families. I'd definitely come back to this location. read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Best garlic bread sticks - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

Great service all the time. Good food too. I'm not a big pasta fan but the fact that they have different options and a lot of pasta. Still like the fact that I was able to just order broccoli and chicken when I'm on a strict diet and I'm still able to go out to eat with my partner :) read more

It was 930 take out are was closed and couldn't help us anymore so we went back to the dine in area where they had already offered us a seat. Then some other guy came over and said they couldn't serve us anymore... not cool it was a pregnancy craving... but they don't close until 10 so I don't understand why they didn't want to help us out. Had never been here.. and will never come. read more

Chloe is a doll Took good care of us and was very nice! Good food and enough for two days ! read more

I had went in today for a little solo date to treat myself before finals and I got seated right away and I had ordered the fettuccine alfredo with a choice of the soup and a water with lemon and got everything really quick and my server was wonderful she was so sweet and very on top on taking care and checking on me (I believe her name was Monica if its correct on the receipt) and I will for sure be back because this was one of my best experiences from an Olive Garden! read more

My wife's plate had hair in it, and the service was pretty bad. Our server asked once about refills and never came around to offer a to go box. An older gentleman that looked like whitey from me myself and Irene served our food and was extremely rude. It didn't feel personal exactly but more like the man hated his job and interacting with people. Was really forcefully when grabbing my plate. read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Guy who served our food - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

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For a restaurant that I love to frequent, my latest visit was such a disappointment. For background, I do visit this Olive Garden at least twice a month and enjoy it very much. This visit we were seated and then the waitress came over and asked if we wanted to order our drinks. I ordered a glass of Chardonnay. She said they were out of Chardonnay. She said they were also out of Pinot Grigio. Needless to say I was shocked that a restaurant could be out of town of their white wines. I then said I'd like Sauvignon blanc, which they did have. She took the other orders and then came back and said the wine was not chilled but they could bring me some ice on the side to put in my wine. Again, I was shocked that of the one choice of white wine they had, they didn't have any chilled! My friend ordered a moscato and it was almost as clear as water and she said it tasted bitter. She sent it back and settled for iced tea. We placed orders for food and all four of us had salad as part of our order. I may be picky but I thought waitress should have checked to see if we wanted more salad. I did finally ask for more for all of us. Oh, and our salad plates were piping hot, like they just came out of the dishwasher. Not good with a salad, but we didn't say anything. Our food was served but the person who had the endless soup and salad never got her soup until we flagged down our waitress and ask her. Everyone's food looked and tasted good, but the broccoli served as a side was cold. At the end, we had all finished but no one ever cleared the plates. Usually, plates are cleared and we sit and visit for a few minutes. Very disappointing. I will say that our waitress was as nice and cheerful as could be but perhaps she was new because we kept having to flag her down to ask for things. I will go back, but if my service is this poor again, I will talk to the manager on duty. read more

My server was very attentive and made sure I had everything I needed. I went in a few days ago and ate by myself, the food was really good, I tried something different I had the 6oz sirloin. It was nice inside and everyone was polite, I asked my server her name specifically for this review and of course I forgot it lol but she was great!! read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Toscana soup - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

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This is our second time eating at this Olive Garden and definitely a good experience again. First visit - great time, great service, drinks never got less than half empty before our waitress came around, food got delivered quickly, and very friendly staff. Even met multiple managers. Second visit - good time, great service, drinks got empty before the next time the waitress came around but only by a couple of minutes. Food got delivered quickly, but the breadsticks (in general) are becoming of lesser quality. They need to put more butter and garlic on the breadsticks otherwise there's nothing special about them. Decided to get the margarita chicken, gluten-free risotto, and chicken parmigiana with fettuccine alfredo (charged for the sub from spaghetti to the alfredo). Chef even came around this time and made sure everything was okay. The ambiance was the fancy casual that Olive Garden typically is, definitely needed to bring a jacket just for inside because it got so cold. Love the Italian music that's always playing. read more

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My wife and I chose to dine here on 3-21, and Noi, our waitress, truly went above and beyond to ensure we had everything we needed, regularly refilling our drinks, breadsticks, and soup. I attempted to leave a review for her and the restaurant at the kiosk, but I wasn't aware of the time limit. Aside from that, the service, seating, and overall atmosphere were wonderful. Thank you, Noi, for your attentive care, and keep up the excellent work. read more

The food and the server was amazing! The manager made me and my family feel really uncomfortable. For some reason she felt the need to keep walking around our table and was staring at us while we were eating. There were no other guests seated around us so I am not quite sure why she was doing this. I did not get her name but it was the evening of 3/9/26. read more

Endless soup and salad is available on Saturdays too. It says Monday thru Friday only in the menu, but they also do Saturday. The shrimp was juicy and fresh. They remove the tail, which I like. The chicken was also seasoned nicely and juicy. The sauce was creamy and buttery which added to the good flavors and spices. Minestrone soup was good Chicken & Gnochi was also good. They give some large garden salad with Italian dressing. It was pretty good Adriana our server was very nice. The ambiance in the morning is casual and lively. Music is Italian themed and medium volume. I would definitely come back again. read more

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Super excited to see Olive Garden come to Merced! Located right next to the mall where the old Hometown Buffet used to be, this Italian restaurant is sure to fill all of your pasta cravings! They have a great selection of beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails (the sangria is so good, it's dangerous!). Their endless bread sticks and soup/salad are fantastic. I tried the Chicken Alfredo and the Shrimp Scampi and they were delicious! I love my dishes with extra cheese and dried chili flakes. The interior design is nice, new, and modern. Expect to see plenty of shelves of wine! I got a seat at the bar: it's well-lit and cozy. For being a new restaurant, the staff is also very pleasant and helpful! ProTip: if you go during lunch, you can order the pasta entrees in lunch portion, which will be slightly smaller than the dinner portion and be cheaper! read more

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Olive Garden is sliding down, one visit at a time. We had excellent food, service, etc, for quite a while. Then, they gave me almost raw broccoli. I could not stab it with a fork. I asked for softer broccoli and got literally raw broccoli that time. The third try was just as bad, I said I will do without. SECOND bad trip is when the salmon came burnt. And I do mean burnt. I asked for another salmon and after a while, a long while, they brought me another plate and asked me if wanted to check it. Absolutely. I looked at the salmon, it was upside down? WTH? I flipped it over, lo and behold, burnt to a crisp. Seriously? When my server returned, I asked to speak to the manager. She told me the guy who brought my second salmon WAS the manager. THIRD was tonight, I took a friend to dinner for her birthday. They brought her salmon, but not mine. (We arrived at 5:00) I waited and waited and waited and finally got up to walk to the front desk to cancel my meal, there is my server. She said they ran out of broccoli when I asked since when do you only bring one plate of salmon to a table who ordered two? Since she served the table next to us dinner with broccoli AFTER they delivered our first plate, I smell a lie in there somewhere. I told her I would stay if she could kindly deliver? Another salmon finally shows up (it's almost 6:00), but it's completely raw in the middle. The art of cooking salmon thoroughly without burning it is not rocket science, guys. Finally, at 6:10, my friend has finished her meal, I am sitting without my dinner. A man playing manager came by, knowing I was unhappy. He offers to fix it all if I would like. I said I wasn't paying for it, he said he would have the salmon removed from the bill, asked if I wanted the salmon to go, I said sure. At 6:30 we paid for her dinner and was walking out when the girl at the counter said, goodnight, thanks for coming, I told her I was leaving without my dinner. She offered to find the manager, I told her no, just ask him how long was I expected to wait for my meal, (I was quite angry at this point, and hungry) and we left. I am appalled by this entire evening. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for any of these three visits to go as badly as the did. This might have been the straw. If management wants to come back to offer some comped meals for the three disasters? Maybe. An out of town friend is coming in the middle of January, we usually go to the Olive Garden. Maybe I should eat first. read more

Always great food. Friendly staff. Say hi to Kamariea at the bar Never too long of a wait. Ordering food to or pick up is also very simple and a great idea. read more

The food was good. Service was excellent. Leslie was our server and my mother in law had a great birthday dinner with great service. It was a much better experience than we've had on previous visits. read more

The service was awesome and the food was amazing we took our granddaughter and we all had a great time well worth the money definitely will be returning again read more

I just ordered 5 meals to go and I did not receive silverware or side of sauce requested for meals, nor did we get staws for our drinks. This is the second t8me thos has happened at this location very disappointing. read more

The food was fabulous!!! Varieties of soup great, salad, breadsticks, appetizers all great!!! Service was amazing!! Thank You Madelyn for your attention and your great sense of humor you are a great asset to this restaurant. The manager came to check on us and gave his card wanted to make sure all was good!!! It was our friends anniversary and they made it very special for them!!! We will see you soon.. read more

Took four people to help one customer super slow service before they got to me Let's hope my food isn't cold. The two girls in the front had no work ethic seemed as if they tried as little as possible to help anyone. Wish there were negative stars. read more

Tonight my family and I went to celebrate a birthday and while the food was great for everyone, I really need to acknowledge the service! Our server Mia was everything you could want in a server! She was genuinely kind, quick and attentive to everything. She recognized when all the adults were handled plates but not my 5 year old niece and she immediately walked over and said she'd get it sorted. Then she brought grapes to hold her over. If you have a family with kids, you understand why that small gesture goes such a long way. I haven't had service where every box was ticked in such a long time so I felt this review was needed and her service alone 10000% warrants a 5 star review. read more

We are here on a Saturday night. Very busy, so we decided to wait at the bar. The bartender Virginia is great! Very nice and friendly and the drinks were served quickly. Getting seated and then getting our order was another story. Had to wait quite along time, but like I said, they are very busy so that gives them a pass on that. We were seated for about 1.5 hrs and only served 4 breadsticks between the two of us. Again, maybe they were too busy, but even so we had to ask. 4 breadsticks in 1.5 hrs don't qualify for the "endless" description. We had the Tour of Italy and the Shrimp Scampi. The wife said the shrimp was real good and I rated the Lasagna and Alfredo as very good, the chicken parmigiana as average. I like Olive Garden and considerate it a great place for a normal, not too fancy meal. I am sure we will be back pretty often. read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Tour of Italy. - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

Merced has no shortage of restaurants. So when we drove past Olive Garden after mass I was surprised at the amount of cars and people waiting outside to be seated. My family and I decided to join. The wait was about 30 minutes or so, not bad, we waited over an hour at Applebee's a few weeks before. I have learned to take my own utensils to establishments like this. Unfortunately O.G. is no different and the utensils brought to me still had food stuck to the forks. I ordered the shrimp and chicken carbonara today. I was disappointed with the flavor. I was almost done with my food before somebody came to check up on us. I needed a refill of my drink and it came way late. I understand it's a new restaurant most employees looked like it was there first job. Men's restroom needed clean up and why only one urinal? We will go back again, but not any time soon. read more

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Was there this weekend, tried paying with a virtual gift card but this location in Merced would not accept it. I have used the same gift cards in another cities but so far the Merced location doesn't honor them. Changing restaurants read more

This was only my second time ever going to an Olive Garden, and I went here on opening night. The place was absolutely packed ,but after some waiting we managed to get seated at the bar (we didn't have a reservation) and got great service quickly. The appetizer was minestrone: hearty, savory, and just a tad acidic. Then I had a rich, smooth, and meaty lasagna with a slightly sweet tomato meat sauce and a mild cheese filling. A classic bottle of Peroni beer to drink and a tiramisu for dessert. Everything was delicious! Even though there were tons of people, service was prompt and kind. The staff accommodated for a vegetarian variation of the baked ziti (highly recommended) for my companion, and they even offered to take our picture! The atmosphere of the place was festive and friendly, and the loudness of the patrons was masked by a playlist of Italian songs. Overall, an excellent restaurant with great service and delicious food. Don't miss it! read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Salad and minestrone - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

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We took the in-laws out to dinner and were sat down by the hostess....and we sat there for quite a while with no waitress. Meanwhile, we could hardly have a conversation because the squeals from the chatty Cathy's standing around behind us in the serving area were so loud...4-6 women whilst we sat there....without any service. The lone busy woman, Cecilia, stopped and asked if we've been helped. From that point on, she was our rockstar. Again....whilst all these other women were standing behind us in the server area laughing and talking so loudly, we could hardly hear our conversation. One woman, who looked like possibly a manager?, was cackling and laughing right along with them. Our appetizer showed up a minute before the food. Seriously? Our first experience at Olive Garden was very lacking but we chalked it up to just being opened. Our second experience? We will absolutely never go back to this location again. Piss poor atmosphere which sounded more like a party for the workers than a dining experience. Cecelia was super busy covering multiple tables bustling around but always made sure to keep us in our drinks and such. She's a rockstar and we feel bad she has to be working around a bunch of worthless people hell bent on acting as though they were at a party. The two stars are purely because of Cecelia. Had she not checked in with us, we all would have walked out. read more

We like Olive Garden, so we waited impatiently for this brand new location to open. We were not disappointed! The restaurant is well designed, and the staff was friendly. The wait for a table was a a little long, but certainly not unacceptable. We had a brand new (to us) appetizer of fried shrimp, fried onions and fried bell pepper. Absolutely fabulous! Our entrees were standard OG fare, but very well prepared, and absolutely delicious! We recommend the chicken and shrimp carbonara! The wait staff was extremely attentive, quick and accurate. Definitely a team effort, as we saw no fewer that three folks at our table. All were upbeat, friendly and helpful. Our initial server discussed the menu with us, offered recommendations and made certain our respective orders (there were five of us) were correct. All in all, everything was on point! Both the assistant manager and the manager stopped by our table, and a server checked occasionally to make sure we were happy. It's sadly true that experiences like this slowly disappear as time goes on in a restaurant. We hope these folks will hang on to their great service and good food. We highly recommend that you stop by if you're in Merced! read more

Bartender was very nice, food is great, ambience was just what I needed after a long day read more

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - The Tour of Italy - Italian Near Me - Merced, California

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Not accommodating for handicap I went yesterday worst experience ever the manager had an attitude read more

Excellent food for Merced. It's the best Italian spot In this city. Great service. The atmosphere is amazing. The only thing is they do seat you slowly when you see tons of empty tables. That would be the only knock on them. read more

Olive Garden was my favorite Italian restaurant for years. I was hoping to experience this with my order for dinner last night, 3-22-25. I used to love the Chicken Marsala. They've changed a lot. I was not at all impressed with the taste of the chicken at all. It was like a processed piece of meat, not the real chicken they used to serve. The mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes were good. The salad and breadsticks were great. As for the service and ambience, I ordered online for pickup to take home. This met my expectations and I was pleased with the results. I just think the food industry is changing to fast. This meal was not the meal I was expecting. I still love Olive Garden but I need to pick another meal option. ‍ read more

I've been to this location 3 times. All have been really good. The manager walks around asking if everything is okay. The staff tries their best. Food has always been good read more

It's a typical Olive Garden....I'm not sure what people in the reviews were expecting. Is it good: yea..is it authentic: No..that's not what Olive Garden is. We've gone twice...the day it opened and once after. The second time they were clearly over whelmed with orders and customers so the wait time was long. The food was good minus the salads are ALWAYS wilted and about to go bad so I'd pass on the salad. read more